Eco and Community Homes Fair 2018

FREE entry, free talks, workshops, stalls and children's activities.

Drop into the Civic Hall, Totnes, anytime between 10am and 3pm. Meet suppliers of eco-friendly goods and services, home energy installers, eco-builders, architects and others, learn about how to make your home more energy efficient and eco-friendly, and find out about community led housing solutions!

The fair also features free talks and workshops, as well as children’s activities to give parents time to look around. This year Food in Community will be running the cafe, selling delicious treats made from grade out produce that would otherwise be wasted.

Talks

10.00 – 10.30 Building a low cost eco-home (Nicola Lang)

Nicola Lang is on a mission to build her own low cost eco-home from local natural materials. In this talk Nicola will share the ‘story so far’ - the highs and the lows, the highlights and the challenges of project managing and building her own home, including information about sourcing the straw and timber for the build.

Tim Crabtree works with Wessex Community Assets, which is supporting 40 community-led housing projects across Devon, Dorset and Somerset. In the talk and discussion, Tim will explore how we can overcome barriers to innovation in affordable housing – including through open source design, off-site prefabrication, new financing arrangements, government support and the use of land trusts and co-operative structures.

11.45 – 12.45 Community-led housing 'Voices from the coal face'

Representatives of local community housing projects’ (Transition Homes, South Brent and Broadhempston Community Land Trusts plus more TBC) will discuss the progress they have made in developing affordable housing for local people, some of the joys and challenges and their top tips to anyone contemplating a similar project.

13.00 – 13.45 Regenerative Settlement – How to Build New Sorts of Places That Are Good for People and the Planet (James Shorten)

Many people want to live a more sustainable life, to live closer to nature and each other, but are often frustrated in finding somewhere where they can do so, even in Totnes, where living more sustainably can be harder and more expensive than more conventional ways of living. James Shorten will discuss why the planning system, despite its apparently good intentions, is failing to deliver places where living (much) more sustainably is easy, and explore what we (the people who want to do so) can do about it.

Less than half of us know our neighbours. And Britain's housing crisis means that we’re running out of homes, fast. But there’s a quiet revolution going on… In this 30-minute documentary, Peg Alexander meets some of the people who are taking control of their housing in an attempt to create better places to live. Some are fighting the demolition of perfectly good homes, whilst others are designing brand new, close-knit communities within their cities. Can they really make a difference? Released in September this year, this new documentary explores people-powered solutions to Britain’s Housing Crisis.